Ambitions Expand at Canco Lofts

AS the first 200 condominium units at Jersey City’s Canco Lofts approach completion, with 60 of them already sold, the project’s developers disclosed last week that they plan to create an entire new neighborhood encompassing the site of the former American Can Company factory.

The development by Coalco New York is to expand to more than 1,100 units — about half of which will be new construction, and the rest lofts in the converted factory buildings, which closed in the 1970s — according to Coalco’s president, Mikhail Kurnev.

Retail shop space and a public park are also part of the plan to revitalize a 10-acre site that Steve Lipski, a local councilman, said once “looked like Dresden after the war.”

Coalco, a division of a Russian-based company with diversified interests, will invest a total of about $350 million in the project, said Mr. Kurnev in an interview last week. He detailed expansion plans even as the city moved to grant an improved tax abatement to jump-start sales at the Canco Lofts.

Mr. Kurnev said the sales pace at Canco had been slowed by a number of factors: construction and permit delays, the soft market, and the need to educate buyers about the neighborhood’s potential and the city administration’s commitment to it.

Moreover, he added, the project is attracting younger people — so far, 80 percent are under 35 and unmarried — who typically would be first-time buyers, “and they are insecure about it.”

The retro-modern look of the apartments, which have soaring ceilings and enormous windows, along with the high-tech-inspired design of the lobby (by Lot-Ek of New York) are creating intense interest, several brokers said. At least a couple of buyers agreed.

“Honestly,” said one of them, Dan Moore, “I have not seen a single thing that even remotely compares to how cool these spaces are.”

Mr. Moore, a designer himself, is moving from an 800-square-foot apartment in Midtown Manhattan with his partner, Shawn Cox. They have been searching every weekend for three and a half years, Mr. Moore said.

They recently signed a contract for a three-bedroom penthouse at Canco that has 14- to 27-foot ceilings and more than 1,500 square feet of living space. The price was $710,000, which seemed like a bargain, Mr. Moore said.

“I don’t think we’re pioneers,” he said of living in a once-run-down neighborhood. “We know the neighborhood is going to get better and better, but no matter what happens, we wind up with this incredibly perfect space.”

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

The lofts are nine blocks from the Journal Square PATH station, but whether they walk there or ride on the free shuttle bus for residents, Mr. Moore and Mr. Cox said they expected to have the same 30-minute commute to work in Manhattan that they do now, living on East 57th Street.

The units will start to be ready for occupancy in late summer or early fall, Mr. Kurnev said.

The first 202 condos are being created in two center towers of the can factory, which has five towers. They range in size from one to three bedrooms, and in price from above $300,000 to about $750,000.

More than 300 condos will be created in the second phase of construction, along with about 10,000 square feet of retail space, which will house a day spa, a dry cleaner, a cafe and automated teller machines, the developer said in an interview last week.

A separate powerhouse building adjacent to the complex will most likely be turned into a minimarket, he said, adding that two new condo buildings would then be built across Dey Street from Canco Lofts.

The final, and recently announced, phase of construction — to be completed by 2011, according to Mr. Kurnev — will include the neighborhood park, between the new condo buildings, and a rental building with ground-floor stores, which will be built on the site of a vacant warehouse.

“This neighborhood is going to serve as sort of a bookend to the Beacon on the southeast side of the square,” said Mr. Lipski, the councilman whose ward encompasses the Canco property.

At the Beacon, the eight Art Deco buildings of the former Jersey City Medical Center are being converted to create 1,100 residential units along with stores and restaurants.

Two years ago, the City Council established a program under which Canco buyers would pay 16 percent of their annual mortgage and maintenance payments for 30 years rather than normal property taxes. But in a shifting real estate market, that turned out to be less than a great deal for buyers, Mr. Kurnev said.

Last Wednesday, the council approved Coalco’s request that the alternative payments be reduced to 10 percent for 10 years, 12 percent for the following 10 years and 14 percent for the last 10 years of a new 30-year-agreement. Similar terms have been granted to other new developments over the past year.

Correction: July 6, 2008

The “In the Region” article in New Jersey and Manhattan copies last Sunday about the Canco Lofts condominium development in Jersey City described incorrectly some aspects of the penthouse apartment bought by Shawn Cox and Dan Moore, which was shown in the photograph. It has three bedrooms, not two, and it reaches 27 feet in height, not 17.